Hand drawn or painted FDC (first day covers) have been done since the 1940s. Over the past few years I have begun combining my collection of comic character hand drawn sketches with FDCs. This blog is being maintained for the purpose of sharing my collection...

Monday, May 28, 2012

I am still amazed at how the world works, maybe it's just a matter of paying attention. I came across this article in the New York Times online "Lost Occupation, Lost Art as Sports Cartooning Dies" written by Rich Sandomir on the decline of newspapers using sports cartoonists. I grew up reading the NY Daily News and probably received most of my sport education from the Bill Gallo and Bruce Stark drawings. I was aware of the Willard Mullins covers from the New York Mets yearbooks, which I still have!

The line from the article "With the stroke of a pen, they animate the page, maybe in a way that even photographs could not," Larry Merchant former NY Post sports columnist...

A day after reading this, my wife and I were going through a box of old photos from her parents house and mixed in was a newspaper sports page from 1934. On the page was a drawing by Gus Edson of light heavyweight boxer Bob Olin, who in 1934 lost twice to Lou Brouillard. The cartoon easily captures the huge effort Olin had to make to earn the title fight. Olin would finish his career with a record of 55-27-5 (25 KO)...

Edson would also draw the comic strip the Gumps, created by Sidney Smith in 1917 and co-creating the comic strip Dondi with Irwin Hasen...

Before the days of internet access, whenever I used to travel (mostly soccer tournaments) I would pick up local newspapers to see what comic strips they were carrying, and if they had a sports cartoonist. I would try to write to as many as possible, with little success. As time went on I found less newspapers carrying sports cartoons, and the comic strips were getting smaller. I for one still enjoy the sports cartoon and hopefully the newspaper publishers will see the beauty of sports cartoons and start including more of them in their on-line editions...

This also provides me the opportunity to share a recent purchase, a multicolored sketch of Moon Mullins by Ferd Johnson.
Created by Frank Willard in 1923 the comic strip ran until 1991. The strip depicts the lives of lowbrow characters who reside in a boarding house, the central character being Moon Mullins a would-be prizefighter strapped for cash and a penchant for gambling and the horses...

Other sports related comic strips have also been published in the newspapers including Joe Palooka, created by Ham Fisher in 1921; All In Sport by Chet Adams 1940s; Cleats by Bill Hinds 2001; Tank McNamara by Hinds and Jeff Millar 1974; Out of Bounds Don Wilder and Bill Rechin, 1986;

Although not central to the story line sports were always a big part of Peanuts, Frazz, Shoe and the Wizard of Id

Friday, May 25, 2012

Rodney Ramos has been a professional comic book artist, penciling for Marvel, DC Comics, Valiant, Acclaim and various other publishers on titles such as Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, 52, X-Men, Spiderman, Ironman, Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer, JSA...

I usually try to have a plan of artists and sketch ideas when going to a show, however on occasion I make an unexpected find while looking around the convention. I passed Ramos' booth twice looking for specific artists. On the third pass I noticed his posted drawings of David Tennant and Matt Smith as Doctor Who...(Dr. Who theme starts playing in my head)...

I had picked up some first day covers celebrating the 21st century, the year 2000. The stamp features baby New Year celebrating the New Year. Like a time lord this child will grow until the following December when he fades from sight to be replaced by a new baby New Year. I liked this concept and requested a David Tennant Doctor Who sketch...(theme music is still playing)...

Friday, May 18, 2012

Allen Bellman studied at the High School of Industrial Arts and became a staff artist for Timely Comics during the Golden Age of Comics. Still a teenager, Bellman was drawing backgrounds for Syd Shores "Captain America", 1942, along with other titles The Patriot, The Destroyer, The Human Torch, All-Winners Comics, marvel Mystery Comics, Sub-Mariner, Young Allies, Jet Dixon of the Space Squadron. Bellman created the back-up crime feature Let's Play detective...

During the pre-code era Bellman worked on Horror, Crime, War and Western tales for Atlas Comics staying in the field until the early 1950's, when he moved to Florida and stared working in the art department of the daily newspaper The South Florida Sun-Sentinel...

Bellman is also an award winning photographer...

The Allen Bellman website contains a complete and extensive checklist of the comics he has worked on...

Friday, May 11, 2012

A 1994 graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Jason Quinones has created clothing graphic designs for Warner Bros Looney Tunes and Marvel Comics Spiderman. Quinones has provided freelance spot illustrations for Scholastic as well as several web based comic sites.

Quinones has self-published Beer and Cookies, filled with parodies of many of todays comic heroes. The book also features Quinones' creation P.S. 666, the story of a city public school, whose students are ghouls and monsters. The above sketch features Warren Wolfawitz one of the PS 666 students. Excellent drawing for his first con sketch. As he posted on his blog the rough texture of the paper this envelope was made of was intimidating (although Jason said it much differently) I agree that it came out real nice!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Bob McLeod is the co-creator and illustrator of Marvel Comics' New Mutants. He began his career with Crazy Magazine, penciling and inking movie and TV satires and the Teen Hulk strip. He would become one of the industries top inkers, working on such titles as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, GI joe, Star Wars, Moon Knight, Conan the Barbarian...

McLeod also was ghost artist for Brenda Starr comic strip, and Swedish publisher Egmont's The Phantom...

The Phantom was created by Lee Falk in 1936, a costumed crime-fighter operating in the fictional African country Bangalla. The Phantom is similar to Batman, relying on his strength, intelligence and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost...The Phantom lives in the Skull Cave, his companions are a trained wolf, Devil, and his horse, Hero...

Besides comic strips, the Phantom was been featured in comic books, a 1943 movie serial, 1996 film, an unaired TV pilot in 1961, video games......

McLeod is currently an adjunct instructor at Pennsylvania College of art and Design, Lancaster, Pa. He has also written and illustrated Superhero ABC, featuring A for Astro-Man, B for Bubble Man, C for Captain Cloud, and so on...Teaching kids their alphabet superhero style...

About Me

I have been a collector as far back as I can remember. Stamps, covers, autographs, baseball cards, comic books, coins, political buttons, sports memorabilia, space stamps and covers, and the list goes on.
This blog was set up to be able to share a small part of my collection with anyone who shares the interest.